Dusty Hunting
by The Je'daii Ranger
Summary: Some people hunt other people because it's the right thing to do. Not hunt as in for bounties. But to hunt the wicked people. To execute judgement on the evil doers. (There is mild language, but in this chapter there's not really much of anything terrible. Reviews would be awesome as well!)
1. The Raven flies

The Legion and the NCR were two huge factions. They were both situated on the Western half of the United States, formed long after the Great War(Nuclear war between the US and China). It was of course to no ones appall that humans would once more band together to form societies. The NCR or, "The New California Republic", tried to replicate the old World(as the people now called it)'s form of government, the old America's government. A democracy of sorts, a republic. The Legion tried to band together to copy and paste the ancient Empire of Rome's way of living. Through brutality, slavery, assimilation, and despotism. The Legion was the Bull. The NCR was the Bear. Then there was the Rangers.

The former Desert Rangers now called NCR Rangers. Or rather, "Elite NCR Rangers". They wore black trench-coats and helmets, their helmets having what appeared to be gas masks on the front, and when nighttime struck, the eyes lit up in blood red. Then they had jeans for pants, usually torn and sewed pieces on, and then they had standard work boots, or whatever other boot they wanted to wear. This wasn't mentioning any backpack, weapon, or belt they might have had. Out of these rangers though, the NCR divided them up for four different regions. The Baja Rangers, the California Rangers, the Nevada Rangers, and the Arizona Rangers. The Rangers hunted down criminals, assassinated leaders, infiltrated enemy lines, and a whole manner of other things that the NCR wouldn't want let out to any form of public or press.

The year is two thousand three hundred, anno domini. One of the Rangers was about to be sent out. An Arizona Ranger by the name of Bradley Morgan. He was being sent to Arizona, to a rural region, hunting down both an outlaw in that area, as well as a Legion captain. What seemed so odd about the Legion these days, was that they had allowed women into their ranks if they could match up better than the men. The issue with the Legion captain he was searching for, was it was one of these women. By instinct most soldiers would refrain from firing and women and children, but this time he was ordered to kill or capture.

After receiving his orders, the dark clothed trooper set out to Arizona from southern Nevada. He packed several bottles of water in his backpack and decided that he'd only take a couple MREs with him, he could hunt along the way. He took plenty of ammunition for his .30 caliber rifle with an optional scope attachment as well optional silencer attachment. He took both the rifle as well as a .45 caliber handgun, a 'Peacemaker' as they were called in the old world, though he never knew why. What would surprise anyone was that he was only nineteen and out hunting criminals for a government that in its own self was corrupt. He could recall the old training regimes. Crawling in the hot sand under barbed wire, climbing over tall wooden walls, swinging on ropes, all in a rapid paced manner. It would exhaust anyone, but it was well worth it. It could save any of their lives.

It was 6:00 AM in the morning when he awoke in his home. He was meant to head out about an hour ago, but he had decided he could waste an hour by sleeping. Hell, the sun had only just came up anyways. After filling a glass of water from a nearby well and drinking it down, Morgan got dressed into that old armor that had been in existence for over two hundred years. Once dressed and packed up, he headed out.

For about a week he'd been slouching his way to the Arizona State line until he come up to the sign that read 'Welcome to Arizona The Grand Canyon State'. How funny. The Ranger couldn't hold back a grunt of amusement as he trekked on past the sign. By noon he could see in the far far distance, several crucifixions planted in the ground. They didn't have people on them, but that didn't mean they wouldn't soon enough. He decided he'd need to take a different route to where he was going. Luckily there was an abandoned town not too far from where he was thus he ended up heading in that direction.

Once in the town, he spent a few more hours just fiddling around until deciding to truly investigate the buildings. With the gun strap around his shoulder and the .30 rifle in his hand he opened a door to one of the buildings, a large house it seemed. When he discovered it was locked and then realized he had no way of breaking into it quietly, he decided to ram the door in. He backed up from the door a good pace, and then when a good distance away ran at it in a fast pace, and then but all of his force into the door, which evidently did push it in, but didn't break it down or anything. It was hanging on one hinge by the time he had hit the floor from the slickness in the textiles. After banging his head on the floor and lying there for a few minutes groaning in pain, his gloved hands pushed himself up as he stood up again.

After regaining his posture, the Ranger started looking about at the inside of the structure. It was dusty. There was blue and white rotting wall paper that was shredded and revealed a dry-rotted wood behind it. The place looked like it could collapse at any moment. He studied it for a bit longer until delving deeper into the house. The first room was the kitchen where he began searching for food or water. In all honesty he needed both or he wouldn't be getting too far. His idea of hunting was a disaster. He was running on his last MREs and his water was about to run out as well, despite the fact he kept the empty bottles, hoping to refill them later. After finding nothing in the house he moved on to the living room. There was an old television, some lamps, a couch that was likely infested with bugs, and a table. He wandered over to the table and discovered it had a drawer. After opening it he found nothing in its contents except for a bunch of papers, until uncovering a book of some sort. It had what appeared to be a crucifix on it. Was it a book the Legion left? The word 'Bible' was visible on the front of it. He took the book along and tossed it in his backpack, at least he'd have something to do in his spare time now, even if the pages were a bit degraded, it was still readable.

Once finished with the living room he entered the bedroom. Right as he entered the room he heard something. Something like heavy breathing that became silent as soon as he made a sound going in. He wasn't alone. He put the rifle back behind him and instead chose the .45 handgun to use. He checked under the bed, nothing. The bathroom, same result. Finally he went to the closet. He slowly aimed his gun at the closet doors, and grabbed the handle on it. After quickly jerking it open and seeing what was in front of him, thank heaven he had this mask on. It was a family of four. ". . ." The Ranger became silent as he looked at a grown middle aged man, woman, a teenage girl and boy. The man spoke up as he held the rest of the family behind him inside the closet, "Por favor, Dios nos guarde. Por favor tenga misericordia y no matar a nosotros!" Bradly lowered the handgun, "Ingles." He said, which was responded with the shaking of heads. ". . ." He pushed the closet door back closed and walked out of the room, and out of the house. Stepping back out into the sandy environment with its heat. He'd nearly killed a family, but he was a bit unfazed. As if it was a game of cat and mouse and his mouse had left a decoy for him. But you couldn't really say that, the family was there by chance. Wasn't it?

In two weeks, four bottles of water were gone, and eight MREs were gone. That along with the fact that he was coming down with some sort of illness, it didn't make Morgan feel confident with his mission. That is, until a man had come by and offered him information, for caps that is. He now knew where his outlaw was. What was better was that he had him in his sights right now. Morgan was on a hill, about fifty yards from his target. The outlaw was on the ground in a fenced in area with some other raider looking fellows. "Alright you son of a bitch." The helmet-less Ranger muttered under his breath, his finger lacing around the trigger ready to shoot. "Be ready to meet'ch yer maker." He said as a shot rang out across the land. There was four men altogether in this fiasco. Now there was three. The outlaw's leather had a rip. Blood was there, his friends were gone, the fire was going out. Morgan let out a sigh. It was around night time and the Ranger was tired. He was about to raise up to return to his makeshift campsite, but before he was up, he felt something hit the back of his head and blacked out.


	2. Blood, food, and kids

With the sound of scraping against sand, Morgan woke feeling two tight tugs around his wrists. It was hot, dry, and miserable. His guns were gone, as was his helmet, along with the rest of his gear minus the standard armor. He remained silent not wanting to know what was dragging him along, but he could tell it was humans, was it Legion? That's what he suspected. He couldn't tell since they were facing forward and he was facing rear view.  
After a couple of hours the dragging halted. The Ranger was lifted up to his feet and pinned against a poll. Evidently enough, it was Legion. His head moved up so his peripheral could see the tall poll. The only problem was, it wasn't a pole; it was a crucifex. "Damn it..." He muttered, just quiet enough for them to not hear. They were looking at him, they were dressed in their prewar sport attire painted in red and attempted to be as intimidating as they could forge it. One had an assault rifle of some sort, probably an AK-47. The other had a three foot long machete along with a torch. There was a large garage looking shelter a few yards away. Why had they brought him here? And what's more, what did they plan on doing to him?  
For some reason these fools had decided to ask the Ranger what the NCR's plans were. Why was he there? What did he know? All some kind of bull shit that they _thought_ he knew. "Even if I did know, why would I tell you? And for your information, I _don't_ know anything." For that the Legionaries stripped the black armor off of him and pinned him against the post that he was leaned against. He was inside of the garage with his hands tied from above; it was some sort of torture room. After they stripped the armor off leaving him only with a shirt, jeans, and boots, they gave a laceration to his abdomen. He refused to let a sound out. Continued questions gave continued lacerations, within thirty minutes blood was pouring like a river. He'd been hit with the machete, punched, kicked, whipped, both knee caps busted, an arm broken, and what was the worste of all, somehow the demons had exposed him to radiation. Plenty of it as well.  
After a few more hours of the endless torture, their leader entered the room, though in the darker part, not allowing the Ranger to see. "So you've come into the Bull's region and allowed yourself to be captured by one of its lions? I suppose you were sent by the Bear?" Morgan let out a pained chuckle, with a spit of blood to the floor. "I guess ye could say the Bear sent me, yea. I ain't no cub though. You can tell Caesar that the Bear sent the Raven to kill all you lions and crows, and bulls included." He spat out with another bit of blood coming out of his mouth. "You know what they say about crows, Ranger. They'll eat your eyes." He was catching on, even if his ears were ringing. It was a female voice, but muffled through a mask. "Yea, well... crow's ain't no good for nothin' but eatin' corn and stealin' nests. If ye ain't got no plan, why the hell would'ja think ya think you could take a Raven out permanently?" She grunted in amusement, "Enough with the symbolic speech, Ranger. She responded as she came closer out of the light, peering at his torture-torn body. "Perhaps instead of being a crow, I could be a phoenix?" She replied as she sent a nod toward the other two legionaries. "I'll be going now, Ranger. Good luck." She said as she then left.  
Damn... those two had left him in the building, but before leaving had poured the whole joint with gasoline. What was worse, they'd set it on fire and left him tied up. Even if he did get cut loose, he couldn't work, and one of his arms was broken. Just as he began thinking of some escape plan, the fire reached the post he was tied to and climbed up it, slowly melting the rope his hands were attached to. Once the rope broke, he hit the concrete floor hard. With his wrists still tied together he did his best to crawl out of the godforsaken place, but every way he turned, fire seemed to be there. That was, until he saw someone run quickly through it and to him. He then felt himself jerked up and carried out of the fiery place. At that point he was out of it though.  
Once he was awoken, Morgan heard two people having a conversation. "I read his badge, it says here he's an Arizona Ranger." Morgan's eyes opened wider as he heard they'd been sifting through his belongings, "Yea, and I ain't gonna be too long in town neither." He chirped up at his new associates. It was a man and woman, both wearing some awkward looking hazmat suits except without masks. "Oh yea? Is that so? Buddy, you can't get very far with two broken knees, and a broken arm, along with all the injuries you got." That was true, he wasn't very sure how he'd get out of here with that many injuries. "But ya know... you might could help us out a bit." Morgan raised a brow, "Is that so? And how might I do that?" He asked wondering what the two had planned. As he waited for an answer, one of them lifted up an axe while the other grabbed a nearby knife. "You could give us a good meal for one." The woman spoke up with a maddening grin. Just as the man was about to bring the axe down on him, a shot was heard from just a few feet away, behind them. It hit the man in the stomach, who proceeded to collapse on his rear, and finally his back. The woman turned to kill the attacker, but was shot dead in the head. Who was here now?  
Just as Morgan raised his eyes to see whoever it was in the bright sunlight that had become his savior, he got a good look at a young girl. Couldn't be older than twelve... maybe thirteen? Morgan backed up as she kept coming near him with the gun. She crouched and searched the two dead folks before turning her attention on Morgan. "You're a ranger...?" He nodded, "How'd you know that?" He asked, wondering how in the hell everybody knew he was a ranger. "Says right here on this dogtag here on this armor vest. Arizona Ranger." He shook his head, "I know what in the hell it says, I done told you I'm a ranger." She glared at him at that smart remark before softening the look as she witnessed his wounds, "You look like you're pretty rough shape. Too bad I haven't got any med-x or stimpacks. All I got's bandages and an antibiotic or two." He perked up at that, "Uhh... I could use them if I can have 'em." She nodded, tossing the bandages and antibiotics at him. "Thanks." He replied before quickly bandaging his abdomen, arms, legs, and taking a couple of the medicinal items before returning it all. Once all done, he stood up and redressed. After that he put his armor back on, along with his coat and helmet. "My guns here too?" He asked, she nodded, pointing at them on the ground next to the dead bodies. He grabbed both and holstered them. "Thanks."  
He then began walking away, although limping. "Hey, wait a second!" He looked back at the girl, "Don't you need me to go with you?" She asked, really she was an adventurous sort... or so it seemed. "No, I need to walk alone." She persisted, "Please can I go with you?" He rolled his eyes behind the masked helmet, "No. I'm huntin' Legion, you aren't going." She continued trekking after him, "I'm going anyway, at least until your bones are healed." He gave out a sigh, "Fine... if you got bullets." She grinned widely, "I do. .30 caliber even. So... what's your name?" She asked as they walked out into the horizon, "Morgan, what's yours?" Hopefully he wouldn't get her killed. "Harper, good to meet you Morgan." He laughed, "Good to meet you too." 


	3. A night to not remember

It'd been about six weeks since breaking all those bones and getting all those slashes. The Ranger was healed in that regard, but since he got a hit of radiation, he'd fallen terribly ill and had no Rad-Away or Rad-X to kill the pain or get rid of the stuff. So what could he do? He'd have to wait it out. At the moment he was sitting at his and Harper's campsite. He'd told her once he was over the illness he was dropping her off at the next town over. They'd made their way up into Utah territory somehow, but they didn't plan on staying long. Bradley had a job to do in Arizona. But thinking away didn't do much for his health, so he decided he'd read a bit of his book. Luckily his backpack had been recovered from the burned building. After reading a portion of it he fell into a deep sleep.  
At the sound of someone making a lot of noise in their walking, Morgan's eyes opened to Harper holding a very mutated dead rabbit in her hand. "Good god, what're you tryin' to do, scare the Easter bunny off the planet?" She looked at him oddly, "What's the Easter bunny?" He shrugged, he himself didn't know either, he'd just heard about it from one of those Vault dwellers out in California. "Hell, for all I know that's it." He replied as the girl took a knife to it and began skinning dead animal. It wasn't much, but it would keep them both alive. After inspecting the process, Morgan decided it was edible. Once cooked, he ate a small portion, then went back to sleep without a word to the other.  
He was woken again by gunshots. Harper was yelling about something, but he wasn't sure about what. "What're you hollerin' about?" With a disgruntled face she yelled once more at him, "We're under attac-" At that moment a bullet pierced her in the chest. Under plenty enough stress, the sick man grabbed the nearby .30 caliber rifle and began firing away at what was now obviously Legion. "F-Fu-!" The gun jammed. He glanced back over to the young teen who was on the ground bleeding out. He didn't even know if she was alive. Grabbing the rifle, his handgun, and backpack, he began running, returning fire at the Legion troops every so often. Eventually he was cornered into a slope. He aimed his gun at the surrounding footsoldiers who had machetes, bats, and assault rifles. "Your time's up NCR scum." One of them spat out. It was now a game of chance. Morgan let out a sigh, staring at the group of three men. ". . . Ya'll ain't good at ending moments, are ya? How 'bout this. I give you five hundred caps to leave me be. For good." He offered all he had and got a response after, "How about, hell no?" The presuming leader said aiming the gun to Morgan's face. "To hell with you then." The Ranger replied, quickly shoving the gun into the legionarie's gut and shooting him, before the injured soldier could respond Morgan shoved him into one of his friends and fired at the third, hitting a bullet to the head. Finally he turned to the one who was now under his bleeding friend, the Ranger then fired into his chest, killing him as well. Seeing that they were now dead, he returned to the original campsite to check if Harper really was dead. Much to his dismay, she was.  
At the loss of his temporary companion, the soldier carried on. He finally made it to a small town on the edge of Legion territory on the prewar border of Colorado and Utah. It was Legion free, as far as control at least. He stepped into town and to the local saloon. Once inside and at a stool, he had a whiskey. After about an hour of drinking, the man was drunk. So after getting his fill of drink he made his way outside. Where a similar aged girl was doing her best to tempt him into giving himself and his money up to her. Which, after a few minutes of her very compelling ( Insofar as his drunkeness allowed ) arguments he agreed to. So, she pulled him into her home and had her way with him.  
After waking up he found that he'd been stripped down to nothing. His gear was gone, his clothing was next to him and at least still in tact. His guns were gone, backpack gone, helmet gone, everything. He was confused and slightly embarrassed at the fact that he was in a complete stranger's bed. After redressing quickly, he figured out that his head was about to bust open. Then he recalled going to the saloon and after that some girl asking him about something. Something in particular. He rubbed his head as he stood up from the bed, searching around for his belongings. All at once, a young red head came to the door way staring at him with a smirk. "Lookin' for somethin'?" It was almost like a challenge. "Uh... yea... boots, jacket, helmet, guns, pack...?" He responded, as if he was at a store. She returned a bigger smirk, "Guess you'll have to look for 'em huh?" He rolled his eyes. "We... didn't... you know...?" He asked. Her smirk remained and she gave a nod. He let out a sigh, "My money... you have it, don't you?" She nodded again, "Yea, I asked and you said yea, you gave the money and I took it." He rolled his eyes, "You got my stuff?" She nodded, "Yea, hold your horses Morgan..." He looked almost in shock, "How'd you know my name?" She laughed, "You told me last night. Ya told me a lot." He rolled his eyes again, "Just get my stuff."  
After gathering up all his belongings and packing everything, she too grabbed all her stuff up and into a backpack of her own, more whiskey than anything. "Where you goin'?" He asked suspciously. "With you, you sound like you need the company, and I need to get out of this town. We're too close to Legion as it is. You're a Ranger, you can get me to the NCR." He let out a uneasy chuckle, "Uh... I'm headin' to Arizona, not California, ma'am." She looked at him, almost startled, "Arizona? That's the Legion heartland, you can't possibly be thinkin' about headin' in there...!" He nodded, "General's orders." He said as he opened the door to go outside, getting hit in the face with a bright sun. "Damn..." She followed him out as well, "Well, I'm still goin', you ain't got no money and I do, so you kinda need me." He let out another laugh, "Oh yea? Maybe 'cause you robbed me." She gave a smirk, "As I recall you gave it up for somethin' better." With a roll of his eyes he set walking South. "Alright then, come on if you're goin'."


	4. Warhawks

Waking up early in the Arizona sun wasn't really something the Ranger wanted to do, but it needed to be. When he raised up from the sleeping bag under him, he noticed the girl was already done with a full bottle of straight whiskey. "Full over there?" He got a quick nod in response. "Good, 'cause we're headin' out soon. Get all you got, pack the sleepin' bags." He said as he stood up and put all of his gear on, grabbed his rifle with its strap and throwed it behind him and placing the strap over his shoulder. "We're goin' to Show Low." The girl's finished packing her things, "Why there?" He started walking, "That's where my target's at, and that's where I can get a radio." She perked up a bit after hearing the word 'radio', "Radio? So, we can talk to other people?" He nodded, "Ya know, you never did gimme your name." After staying silent for a minute or so she gave her name, "Sharon Cassidy of Rose Cassidy." And another bottle of whiskey opened up and went down her throat. "You done know mine, 'cept maybe the first one. That'd be Bradley." She gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Good name."

Once they were a good trek into Arizona, the Ranger stopped going by the road. "We can't be seen, especially me in this damned armor with a bear on it." So after that they stuck to the wilderness and to the map Morgan had of the American South West. "We'll stop at nearby river and fill up on water, then we'll head on to the town and hopefully my target'll be there."

It was in a dark room with some dim blue lights on a what appeared to be a large circular table that had hologram images, or it looked like it at least. There was several men around the table. All dressed in uniforms with the two headed bear insignia. One more older fellow walked up to the table and began speaking, "Gentlemen." He announced, "We must make peace with the Brotherhood if we are to truly face the coming onslaught. The enemy will come across that river and they will rip us to shreds. It's been some time since our war with them, but they've bound to have replenished three fold since then. I move for a motion to fortify the Colorado now. Put artillery there, and with the Brotherhood's aid, we'll be able to hold it, at least until the main regiments can arrive from the Baja and from California. With any luck, we'll be able to capture some of Arizona as well."

They finished up filling as many bottles and canteens full of water as they could. After finishing up they packed up. Before leaving, Morgan removed a flask from a pocket inside his jacket and asked Sharon to fill it with the whiskey she had on hand, which she obliged. After trekking for around eight to sixteen hours, the two of them made it to Show Low, or the outside of it anyway. The two backtracked a few hundred yards to a large hill, where Morgan grabbed his binoculars and began scouting the town for his target. After searching around, he finally found her. "Good... now I can put a bullet in 'er head." He said as grabbed his rifle and aimed down the scope and at the Legionary's head. "Here we g-" He felt a hard hit on his head and then everything went black.

When he woke up his hands were bound up above him, tied to a chain link on the ceiling. He remained silent until seeing the two legionary in front of him, one male, one female. His target. "So you're up." The female said, "Good. We can get started." After that, she grabbed a nearby cart full of tools and wheeled it over next to him. "We want to know what you know, and why you're after me." He smirked, which got a hard slap from the female legionary. "I am a Legion Centurion and you will treat me with respect, NCR dog. And yes, you might be an elite for those fools, but you're still a lap dog for bureaucrats." That was technically a true statement, he thought. "So. . . why is the NCR after me?" She asked him, he gave a look as if he thought she knew, "Maybe 'cause you're Legion filth for one?" She grabbed a nearby tool off the table, a hood? She put it over his head, blocking his vision. Darkness wasn't unknown to him, however, when he felt an electric pulse go running through him, that was something new. After a yelp of pain came out of him, the prod was pulled away. "You gonna tell us now?" The feminine yet demanding and authoritative voice said. "Depends… where's the girl at?" He heard a snicker after the question, "Oh… she's safe. For now at least." With a roll of his eyes, well… not that they could tell or even he could, he spoke once more with a tad of humor added to his statement. "That's a bit of a typical statement from a 'villain' ain't it?" He received another shock from the cattle prod. For it being a tool for livestock, it sure did hurt like hell. After getting another question from the demanding woman, he heard a body hit the floor, then a yell, then another body hitting the floor. Upon further listening, he heard the chain he was tied to break and his hands, err arms were free from its holding. He had enough liberty in movement to take the hood off and see the two legionaries dead. Thank God.

He looked out a nearby window where he could see the light reflection of a sniper rifle, he raised his hands up, signifying that he was alive. Then the reflection disappeared. Afterwards he busted the door of the room he was in down, and searched the building for his companion. After searching for about five minutes, he discovered her, still clothed but tied up. He grabbed a nearby knife and cut the rope she was tied up with, luckily no legionaries were in the vicinity, so that was a plus. The bad part was that she was knocked out, and his wrists were still clamped together. The only good thing about that was that the chain had a key-lock on it. He went back to the room he had been in and searched the two legionaries and sure enough, found the key. He maneuvered it enough to fit into the lock's keyhole and unlocked it, getting the chain off of his wrists. With that, he searched the rest of the building, find his and her supplies, then returned to her.

Upon getting back to the room she was in, so was a fellow Ranger, rather, a Combat Ranger, not a Veteran. Same thing, just not a colloquial part of the Desert Ranger division. He was a part of the NCR original division. "Good to meet you… Morgan, right?" Morgan nodded, "You?" He asked, "I'm William." The other Ranger said as he lifted the girl, "So, where you headed?" He asked, "Well.. I'm lookin' for a radio, I need you to take her at least a mile west o' here." The combat Ranger nodded and headed out.

After searching for another hour, Morgan finally discovered a working radio. After setting its frequency he was able to pick up NCR comms. "Thank God." He said again, "NCR Shady Sands, do you hear?" He spoke into the radio. After a few moments of silence, he got a response, "This is NCR, Shady Sands, who is this?" The feminine voice asked, "This is Ranger Bradley Morgan, I'm in Show Low, Arizona. I'm requesting transportation back to the Mojave, or California, I'm also wanting further orders, but before I can do that, I need to resupply back in the Mojave." There was an even longer silence, until finally the voice answered back, "We're able to send a Vertibird, but you've got to get at least to the Colorado, there we'll bring you to Shady Sands where we can brief you for your next assignment."

-

The group of elderly and middle-aged men stood around the round holographic-like table once more. One of the elders spoke up, "So… we're down to these two options. Truly, have we all gone mad with power?" He asked. Another responded, more rebellious, "It was your idea Oliver! Don't you dare turn back now! You know it must come down to war if we're to survive! If the NCR is to survive! It's got to be war!" The older gentlemen nodded, "Yes, I know. I'm afraid though. The NCR isn't prepared for this many enemies, not to mention one being so technologically advanced. We don't have such good power armor or weaponry like this. But yes, overall… we must ask the President, Congress, and Senate for a declaration of war."


	5. In the name of Science!

He and Sharon returned to Shady Sands in a Vertibird, they'd flown past every Legion encampment between Arizona and the Colorado. They flew over Nevada, and past some bits of Cali before making their way to the NCR capital. They landed not too far from the town, city, whatever you could call it. The Ranger, now entirely equipped, made his way with his companion to the outskirts of town, and finally through the large cement wall that surrounded it. Once inside, he immediately walked to the military headquarters where he was refilled on food, water, guns, interchangeable parts, and most importantly, ammunition.

Once restocked, he headed over to the general's office, General Lee Oliver. "General." He nodded, the general returned a nod and began speaking. "So… did you get the two targets the Colonel sent you after?" The Ranger nodded, "Yea. I did, so… what are my further orders?" He asked again, being a bit impatient. "You're next orders are to go to a place called Big Mountain Research Facility in Nevada, somewhere." He said, "The place is practically a damned myth, or legend rather." The Ranger looked at him as if he was telling him a fairy tale, "What? With all due respect sir, I don't think you ought to be sendin' veteran soldiers out huntin' for pots o' gold and such." He responded almost snarkily. The General gave a stern look and spoke once more with more… harshness in his voice. "I want the place found, Ranger. I want it found, I want you to get whatever information relating to advanced technology, bring anything you can back, and get your ass back here. Those are your orders. Now, the last signal we got on anything advanced like what I'm talking about, is from the Mojave Drive-in Theater. That's all you need to know, now go and check it out, or I might be liable to give you a bad report, if need be, I can get you court martialled for disobedience to your superiors." The General said with venom dripping. It wasn't a real threat, just something to get the Ranger to get on with it. Morgan nodded and left the room.

Outside, Sharon was waiting there outside when Morgan stepped out. "So, where you headed now?" She was definitely a curious gal. "I'm goin' back to Nevada, why? You ain't goin' this time, so what're you askin' for?" He said in a more commanding tone. "Shut up, I've got your money, so I'm goin'!" He shook his head with disdain, "Don't need money where I'm headed. Now, here's how it's gonna go down. You're gonna stay here and I'm goin' to Nevada. Where I'm goin' nobody has been, so you ain't goin'. You ain't the one with veteran trainin' or anything like that." She looked down and gave a saddened nod, "Fine. Be that way, asshole." He grew a humored smile, "Don't worry, I'll be back sooner than you can confuse a Super-Mutant." He said, and with that returned to the Vertibird which took him East.

Upon entering the Mojave again, he could just feel the sand eating at his armor. The hot sun beating down on him, forcing the inside of the suit to heat up. He hated the desert. Even in Cali it was god-awful. Once landed, he immediately started heading to the Drive-in, which luckily wasn't too far.

Once at the scene, there was definitely something that looked beyond any standard wastelander's comprehension. He walked up to what looked like a crashed… what? Alien tech or something? It looked sort of like a flashlight with wings attached to it? Now that he thought about it, it reminded him of those things in the old history and science books from pre-war. What were they called…? Sat-lites? Sat-lights? Saddal Lights? He couldn't remember quite what they were called, but while he was thinking, a bright blue light came out of it. Then a large blue light from the sky encompassed him and he soon blacked out.

After coming to, he was in a bed, a soft bed. The issue? He was in a medical gown. . . what? Was he dreaming? He pinched himself just to be sure. After feeling the pain, he concluded that this was not a dream. And why did he feel so fucking awful? After looking down at himself, he could see scars where incisions had been made on his chest. Not to mention he felt a rough soreness on his back as well as his head. He rubbed it, which made the soreness hurt that much more. Raising up felt like it broke half the bones in his body, standing up was worse. Each step of his feet felt like he was walking into Hell.

Upon exiting the room, he found himself in another room, it was circular; round. Upon observation it had an Auto-Doc, a book chute, some workbenches, some soda machines, as well as a round holographic table in the middle of the room. It looked like a central command center, like the one at Helios ONE. After looking around, Morgan discovered three other rooms, aside from the two he'd already been in. He found what appeared to be a greenhouse type room, a sort of 'inter-state' room which connected the collection of rooms to an elevator and the outside, as well as a room which contained three large tanks full of… water? What was more concerning was what else was inside… body parts. Two of them had a spine and a heart, the last one was empty. He stumbled backwards to the wall in response of seeing the organs.

After recovering from seeing the organs, he exited the room cautiously and went back to the central hub. After collecting his thoughts, and gaining some strength, he went to the elevator and decided to investigate where he was. Once the elevator went down for a few moments, it stopped and opened up. Looking up a head, there was a ramp. There were some low blue lights as well, he couldn't see what was up in the room though, not until he went up the ramp at least. After catching his breathe, he exited the elevator. He was immediately hit with some sort of sensation… like he couldn't bring himself to any true violent thought. He tried to shake the feeling off while he walked up the ramp. Before making it to the top, a loud and commanding voice roared, "I THOUGHT I HEARD THE PACIFICATION FIELD KICK IN. ALL RIGHT, SHHHH. NOBODY. MOVE. I'LL HANDLE THIS."

Once on top of the ramp, his sight adjusted to these five. . . robots? They looked sort of like Mr. Handies, but rather than a globe-like body, they had large glass domes filled with an odd liquid, just like the organs he saw from before, except these were actually conscious. They also had three screens, all attached to the glass domes, which also had a thruster attached on the bottom, having them hover in mid air. The three large screens, computer or television screens? Either way, they displayed faces, two eyes and a mouth. This wasn't mentioning the jointed arms it as well, which also appeared akin to that of a Mr. Handy robot. They all five emitted different colored lights as well, ranging from clear, purple, ocean blue in the middle, then a light green, and finally a forest-like green.

There was another loud bark from the middle robot, which forced Morgan to cover his ears a bit, to at least dim the soundwaves. "BE WARNED INTRUDER!" The screens began twitching slightly as it spoke. "YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE MIGHTY THINK TANK OF BIG MOUNTAIN, THE COLLECTIVE GENIUSES OF. . . WE. . ." It appeared to be confused, as it slowly stopped yelling for a moment. "BY OPPENHEIMER, WHICH ONE OF YOU SELF-PROFESSED GENIUSES HAS BEEN ADJUSTING MY VOLUME KNOB? WHO WAS IT?! WAS IT YOU, 8?" It had switched its view to one of the other robots, the light green one. "[#^%$ !$^(]" The robot's tank lit up as it talked, as did the first one's each time it did so. This one didn't even speak, it was simple static. All this was confusing the hell out of Morgan. He just wanted his pain to cease. "OH, 'DOCTOR O' WAS IT? LIKELY STORY, O COULDN'T SPARK TWO NEURONS TOGETHER IF THEY WERE IN A LATTICE OF BIO-MED GEL!" The loud one bellowed out again. Then another, the clear one, looked at the one who was yelling (the blue). "What? Me? Breaking news Kelin, it wasn't me, alright?" It sounded like someone who talks when holding their nose… except it didn't have one. "I am the robotical engineer, 8 is soundwaves, that's his speciality! You always do this, you always demean me in front of guests! And it's not 'O,' alright, it's -" The middle robot, now identified as Klein, spoke up loudly again, essentially overshadowing the other two, "ENOUGH! EITHER OF YOU DO IT AGAIN, IT'LL BE THE LAST TIME! NOW. . . NOW. . . GREAT. NOW I FORGOT WHAT I WAS SAYING. . . WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT?" Morgan decided to speak up now that the robot seemed to forget whatever it was speaking of. "Um… hello? Where am I?" At that moment, all of the robots immediately stared at him, and were silent for a moment, as if studying him. "DID. . . DID IT JUST SAY SOMETHING? ANYONE CATCH THAT? BOROUS, YOU WORK WITH ANIMALS, TRANSLATE!" Klein yelled out.

"It's a LOBOTOMITE! Here! In the DOME!" The dark green one, Borous, said. Almost like a character out of one of those holotape films. Like an actor or something. He put emphasis on certain words over others. Strange. "OH, AS IF THE SITUATION COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE, NOW WE'VE GOT LOBOTOMITES?! DALA, GET THE SPRAY BEFORE IT EXCRETES ALL OVER EVERYTHING!" Morgan took a moment, before he realized Klein was talking about him. "Doctor Klein," The purple one spoke up, a very... synthetic feminine voice. "If my hyopothesis is correct, this lobotomite is the repository of the brain we sent the signal to; the skinvelope once containing it. If so, it's proof that there may indeed be something beyond the crater." She began peering very intensely at Morgan… almost intimidating like. "Just look at it. . . the way it blinks. It's like a big hairless teddy bear." The feminine one said before the other spoke up once more, "I KNOW WHAT IT IS, DALA, I WANT TO KNOW WHY IT'S DOWN HERE! WITH ITS. . ." Klein trembled, "ITS LIMBS ALL OVER EVERYTHING! AND - ARE THOSE PENISES I SEE WRIGGLING ON ITS FEET? DISGUSTING!" The purple one peered down at my feet, as did I in certain confusion. "I believe those are toes, Doctor Klein. Little teddy bear toes. Penises are much larger than those tiny extremities." Her screens peered back and forth for a moment, "Er. . . eh, not that I would know." After a moment, the other, the clear one - O - went over to the purple one. "I don't recall the human penis ever being that large. . ." The purple one seemed to clear their throat, not that they had one. "It depeneds on one's own frame of reference, Doctor O. Look at its little nose, with its two orifices for ingesting oxygen."

"NOSES?!" Klein bellowed out, "BY THE GREAT STATIC, THESE LOBOTOMITES CONFOUND ME WITH THEIR SHEER NUMBER OF USELESS EXTREMITIES!" Just to instigate further remarks, Morgan held up one of his hands and slowly popped out each of his fingers, until all four with his thumb were sticking out, sort of like waving to the robots. "NOW IT'S HOLDING UP AN ARRAY OF FULLY-ERECT HAND PENISES! IF IT TRIES TO INSERT THEM, ACTIVATE VIVISECTORS!"

"Doctor Klein, WAIT!" Borous; the dark green one, yelled. "I. . . I don't believe those gestures were RANDOM! Random AT ALL! It's been FOLLOWING our conversation! The Lobotomite. . . it understands US!" After finishing, the purple one, Dala, floated over to Morgan, peering him down. "I agree with Borous' histrionic findings. This little Lobotomite is unusually attentive for something whose brain has been extracted." What? "NONSENSE. LOBOTOMITES CAN'T UNDERSTAND US." Klein said again in a loud and commanding fashion. Dala floated away, before 8, the static one, decided to. . . speak? "[# %#%^# ^*]" Then O spoke up, "8, have you been in the Mentats again?" The two encircled each other. "If we slow down our auro-processo-receptors to understand this excretion, we'll all be rendered ignorant!" O said. "ALL OF YOU! POWER DOWN, SHUT UP, AND LET ME PROVE ONCE AND FOR ALL HOW WRONG ALL OF YOU ARE, AS USUAL!" Klein bellowed out above all the others, once more overshadowing them.

"LOBOTOMITE. DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND. ME? CAN. YOU. SPEAK?" Klein asked Morgan, as if he was a complete idiot who knew no languages at all. "Wait… That one… she said my brain was taken out, is that right?" Morgan asked.

"THOSE. . . THOSE WERE WORDS, WEREN'T THEY? IN THE FORM OF QUESTIONS. . . IT'S ASKING ME QUESTIONS! IS THIS SOME KIND OF TRICK?!"

"Our efforts have turned AGAINST US!" Borous frantically said. "In playing GOD, we've created a MONSTER!" He began hovering in circles in a nervous breakdown, or so it seemed. Dala just kept inspecting Morgan. "Perhaps as we were ruthelessly lobotomizing it with our cutters, we filled this skinvelope with. . . awareness. A teddy bear with new stuffing. . ." Dala said, inching ever so closer. Her eye screens never leaving Morgan. All the while, O decided to barge in front of her. "Wait! If you're theorizing that this lobotomite can understand us. . ." He paused and turned to Klein, ". . . can reason with us. . ." Klein stared at O for a moment, then a surprised look on him appeared, or at least that's what it looked like. Klein then looked at Morgan. "THEN THIS MAY BE JUST THE ANSWER WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!" Klein's loud erratic and commanding tone roared out again, hovering over Morgan, looking down on him. "AT LAST, A CHANCE TO -"

"[#%#^$*)_+##$# !%^]"

"Doctor Klein!" Borous yelled, budging over 8's static message, "A TRANSMISSION! A transmission from the FORBIDDEN ZONE! Coming right at US!" Morgan heard a static behind him, unknown to him, there was a huge monitor on the wall.

"IT CAN ONLY BE. . ."


End file.
